Episodes

Adding New Episodes

Episodes should be added exactly as they first aired on the original network (title, date, order, season).

Pro Tip

Be extra careful with sitcoms, kid series and documentary series. The episodes often air in a different order than produced.

The aired order might also be different from the planned order. Networks sometimes move the episodes around only a few days before the air date or air the wrong episode. They might also decide to report the broadcast of an episode with sensitive content set to air soon after a tragedy.

For newer series, we try to mirror the original network's website. When different, the data on the official website usually trumps press releases and TV listing info.

Please note the data on the original network's current website may be different from the original data:

Some networks such as Discovery Channel are known to move episodes around and re-organize their seasons.

A network could upload a newer versions of an older series.

Networks sometimes add the episodes with the production order instead of the airing order.

In most cases, web archive websites such as the Wayback Machine can be very useful.

When seasons are re-organized after a network change (e.g. American Dad, Futurama), we do not re-arranged the aired seasons/episodes. The new season is simply added as the next season.

Production, DVD, rebroadcast and country-specific orders are not yet supported.

Note

We will support different orders in the future. Please be patient.

Sometimes episodes airs in a different order in other countries. When you add a translation, be careful to follow the original order AND count.

Upcoming Episodes

Blank episodes (with a missing title and/or air date) should be avoided. Please wait until the info is officially released.

Sometimes, episodic data is not available publicly until the episodes are released. In those cases, it is acceptable to add the next upcoming episode with a missing title/description, as well as any episode that will be released the same day (e.g. a Netflix series).

An exception is also made for the first episode of a season and the first episode after the mid-season break. Sometimes only the episode title and description are known, but not the air date, or vice versa.

Please only use official sources (press websites, press releases, the official network's website, official TV guides). Data found on databases like IMDb and Wiki is often wrong. That's also true for specialized websites such as The Futon Critic's TV listing and non-press release posts on Spoiler TV.

Episode Number

The Episode Number of the first episode of a season is always "1" not "0".

For kids cartoon with 2 or 3 episodes per half-hour, we prefer to split the segments.

Name

We currently only support the original episode titles and original translated episode titles (i.e. the first TV/digital/physical title for each language).

When a non-English series is released with different episode titles in the main English speaking countries (e.g US, UK, CA), we usually choose the title used for the first official release as the translated names.

No Official Release

The translated episode name field should be left blank there is no official translation. For example, if an American TV series is not yet released in Russia. Please do not add unofficial translations of the original episodes names.

No "TBA" or unconfirmed titles for upcoming episodes. Please leave the field blank until the info is released. The main guidelines for adding upcoming episodes are listed above.

Multi-Part Episodes

"Episode (1)" "Episode (2)" should be used for regular multi-part episodes.

"Episode (I)" "Episode (II)" should be used for multi-part interseries crossover episodes. In simpler words, it should be used when the storyline starts in an episode of Series A and continues in an episode Series B.

Double Episodes

If two episodes originally air as one, a slash can be use to separate the two episodes titles: Title One / Title Two.

The same technique may be used for episodes which are broadcast as a single double episode on the original channel and split into two parts in foreign country.

Overview

Episode overviews should follow the same rules as the other types of overviews. No big spoilers and the overview should not be used to recap the whole episode.

Interseries Crossover

For multi-part interseries crossover episodes, a reference to the other episode(s) should be added after the plot overview using the following format:

"The crossover continues on... " should be used first the first episode.
"The crossover starts on..." should be used for the last episode.
"The crossover starts on... It continues on..." should be used for the middle episodes.

"Series Name S00E00 Episode Name (roman numeral)" is our preferred way of referencing the episodes.

Air Date

No guessed air dates please! When the air date is unknown, for example for a series from the 60s or an unaired pilot, it's best to leave the date blank. The only way to achieve this is to save a dummy air date—using the correct year if possible—and then delete it.

We currently do not support localized air dates. The first air date should be the air date on the primary network.

We usually ignore digital previews for regular television series. To list a few examples, Fox's Ghosted debuted on Twitter, most episodes of the first season NBC's Aquarius and Freeform's Beyond as well as the fourth season of Fox's The O.C. previewed online. In all cases, the digital previews were ignored.

When a television network airs a preview of their television series on their own network, the preview date can be used. For example, the pilot of Freeform's The Bold Type previewed on Freeform three weeks before the official series premiere.

A notable but rare exception is when the pilot of a digital series premieres on television. For example, the first episode of The Good Fight(CBS All Access) premiered on CBS on February 19, 2017. The TV broadcast qualifies as a valid first air date, however, we decided not to add CBS as a network.

Guest Stars

Contrary to what the name suggests, the Guest Star section is not only for guest stars. Any actor that is not part of the Regular Cast for the season can and should be added as a Guest Star.

When an actor plays two or more characters in a series, consecutively rather than simultaneously, they are usually credited individually for each role. As an example, Alex Steele played the young Angela Jeremiah in Degrassi and was cast years later as the teenager Tori Santamaria. Multiple guest star roles are frequent for long series such as CSI or Law & Order.

While the character name credited on-screen may vary from one episode to the next, it's important to always use the exact same spelling for character names. For example, if a character is already credited as "Temperance 'Bones' Brennan", each new credit has to be with the same spelling. Using a different spelling e.g. "Dr. Temperance Brennan", "Temperance Brennan" or "Temperance "Bones" Brennan" will only split the credits.

No (credit only) credit. If an actor does not appear in the original version of an episode, they shouldn't be added to the database.

(uncredited) should be used for verifed uncredited roles. We strongly advised against blindly copying (uncredited) credits from IMDb.

When someone is credited for some but not all of the episodes where they appears, they can be added without an (uncredited) mention.

Screened theatrically?

You can toggle this flag if the episode was screened at a film festival or in theatre.

Please use the theatrical flag on season level for regular seasons screened in full at a film festival.